Originally posted by Galahad
I too do not get flaps. I know when you go up and get slower to engage the flaps. What I don't understand is when to deploy them. Is this done by feel?.....someone has told me to deploy them at certain speeds,,,,I find this suggestion to be very impractical in a fight. I watched the film by Widewing and saw he deployed his flaps (about three notches)....I usually fly the J model and not the G,,,,,does this make a difference? Also when do you retract your flaps ...I know that when you are going down/faster to pull them in but precisely at what point?.... or do you just use the auto retract feature?
Galahad:confused:
Like Murdr said, it's basically by "feel" that you develop over time. But there is a guideline that you can use that will give you an idea. This was taught to me a long time ago by a really good P-38J driver in AW named Stnky.
[All speeds are in Indicated Air Speed]
250mph - 1 notch
200mph - 2 notches
175-150mph - 3 notches
150-100mph 4 notches
below 100mph - full flaps
Use this as a guideline and as you get more experienced in the P-38, you'll notice that you'll start to develop a feel when to deploy and retract the flaps. I never let the auto-retracting feature to retract my flaps for me. If you rely on the auto-retracting flaps to retract the flaps for you, you're just asking for a boatload of trouble to come smack you in the head. There is a very real risk of entering into a near uncontrollable spin caused by the flaps auto-retracting while in a turn fight. It's nasty and you don't want to experience it. It is also highly unrealistic but HT had made up his mind about keeping the auto-retracting flaps.
I highly recommend that you visit the
479th Fighter Group's website and read Murdr's excellent series called "PJ University". Originally written for the P-38J in Air Warrior, Murdr has already converted most of it to reflect the P-38s in AH. A must read for any P-38 driver, greenhorn and veteran alike. Also make sure to check out the film library as this is probably the biggest collection of P-38 specific films for AH.
Ack-Ack
479th FG.